Authorities were trying to track down Texas billionaire financier Allen Stanford on Thursday as fraud charges against the cricket promoter prompted panicked investors to withdraw cash from his banks.

Two days after the US Securities and Exchange Commission accused Stanford, 58, of perpetrating "a fraud of shocking magnitude," SEC officials were still in the dark about his whereabouts -- as too were close members of his family.

Authorities in the Caribbean island of Antigua and in parts of South America meanwhile sought to quell fears among depositors as big queues formed outside branches of his bank.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle newspaper, Stanford's 81-year-old father James said that he had no idea of his whereabouts.

"I'd spoken to him a week or so ago -- he?d called -- about problems with the business climate in general, but nothing of this magnitude," he said.

"I cannot imagine, I cannot believe, I will not believe what is being alleged actually happened."

The elder Stanford said he understand that authorities were trying to track down his son, but insisted he didn't know where he was.

"I cannot believe that my son would run," he added.

Investors were meanwhile growing fearful about the status of their investments in Stanford's offshore bank and his Houston-based brokerage.

"We're just sick about it. It's visceral," Sandra Walsh, a retired school librarian in Houston, told the daily.

Walsh said she and her husband kept their life savings in an account at Stanford Financial Group.

A substantial portion of Stanford's clients are in South America, where the Venezuelan government issued a request for more information from US authorities.

"They are wondering what will be done with Stanford Bank in Venezuela," Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said Wednesday.

"At the moment we are investigating what repurcussions may have occured with the institution abroad, while at the same time we are asking US authorities about the real situation."

Rodriguez added that Venezuela's finances were "secure and stable."

On Wednesday, Venezuelan bank superintendent Edgar Hernandez assured that the Venezuelan branch of Stanford Bank was operating without problems.

In Ecuador, transactions at the Stanford Financial Group were temporarily suspended Wednesday.

Stock market executive director Monica Villagomez said in a statement that the 30-day suspension also bars Stanford representatives from engaging in any trading or other business in the Quito stock market.

In Antigua, hundreds of people queued up Wednesday at the Stanford-owned Bank of Antigua to withdraw funds. Stanford has been based in the Caribbean for the last two decades where he has built a reputation as a cricket patron.

While the Bank of Antigua has not been officially implicated in the fraud, another offshore bank of his, Stanford International Bank (SIB), has been implicated in his alleged scheme.

The SEC filed civil charges Tuesday against Stanford for what they called fraud "of shocking magnitude" in selling 9.2 billion dollars in securities, "promising ... improbable high interest rates."

A US district judge consequently froze Stanford's assets. Stanford's alleged scheme is the most high profile since Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff was charged in a 50-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme in December.

Antigua's Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer has acknowledged that the charges against Stanford "have profound serious implications for Antigua and Barbuda," but that the government was "putting in place a contingency plan."

Stanford's wealth management and financial services group has offices across North America, Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean.

The scandal has also caused huge embarrassment in English cricket with the bosses of the national assocation faces calls to resign after they signed a deal with Stanford to stage matches in Antigua and England which is now unravelling.

LONDON (Reuters) - England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Giles Clarke remained defiant over the Allen Stanford scandal on Wednesday, saying the idea of resigning over the affair was not on the agenda.
Clarke, who has just been re-elected, has been criticised in the British media and by some people within the sport over his role in England's participation in last year's $20 million winner-takes-all Stanford Super Series.

LONDON (Reuters) - England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive David Collier said on Sunday he would not resign over the Allen Stanford scandal.
Collier and ECB chairman Giles Clarke have come under fire in the media and from within the game over English cricket's association with Texas billionaire Stanford, who has been accused of involvement in an $8 billion securities fraud.

Chief executive David Collier defended the England and Wales Cricket board (ECB) on Sunday in the wake of criticism over its dealings with Allen Stanford.
Collier insisted he would not be resigning and stressed that he believed he and the ECB's actions in relation the Texan billionaire were beyond reproach.

Former England cricket captain Kevin Pietersen admitted in an interview published Sunday that he too had lost money in torn-up contracts with alleged fraudster Allen Stanford.
Pietersen, who did not specify the value of the contracts he had signed with Stanford to be a cricket ambassador, described the Texas financier as a "sleazebag" and said his sponsorship of a tournament involving England made it seem as though "the England team had been sold."

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Friday terminated all contracts with billionaire financier Allen Stanford, the ruling body of the game here said.
The ECB will not be taking part in any further Stanford Twenty20 matches in Antigua or the proposed Stanford-sponsored international quadrangular Twenty20 events in England, the first of which was due to be played at Lord's in May.